Page:The Mastering of Mexico.djvu/254

218, and all the soldiers not anxious to join our expedition, and also possible partisans of Velasquez, were to stay with him.

Fortunately Cortes had ordered a supply of maize from Tlaxcala before the arrival of Narvaez, for the harvest had failed about Mexico owing to want of rain. We needed great quantity of provisions for many Tlaxcalan friends were with us. This maize and other necessities, such as fowls, now came in and we gave it in charge of Pedro de Alvarado. Further we fortified our quarters by mounting bronze cannon, and left with Alvarado all the powder we had, ten crossbowmen, fourteen musketeers, seven horsemen and in all eighty-three soldiers.

Montezuma plainly saw that our plan was to go against Narvaez, and though Cortes went to see him every day, he did not let him know that he was aware the monarch was sending gold and cloth to the newly arrived Spaniards and was ordering food delivered to them. So it happened that one day while they were discoursing as usual, Montezuma said, "Malinche, I have for some time been noticing that your officers and soldiers are disturbed, and you yourself do not come to see me as often as you used to. Your page tells me that you are about to march against your brothers who have come in the ships, and that you are going to leave Tonatio (so the Mexicans termed Alvarado) to guard me. Do tell